Watchdog to probe Viagogo ads

All 300,000 tickets for Ed Sheeran’s Irish tour 2018 were snapped up last weekend. Organiser Aiken Promotions says many of the tickets sold on Viagogo are invalidBRYAN MEADE

The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) is assessing whether ticket resale website Viagogo has breached advertising rules in the way it promotes itself on Google.

One of the issues being assessed is Viagogo’s use of the word “official” in its Google ads. Viagogo is not the official ticket retailer for the vast majority of big events in Ireland. The word “official” in the ad refers only to the fact that it is a link to the official Viagogo website.

Buying Google ads allows Viagogo to appear at the top of search engine results. For more than a week, Viagogo has been at the top of Google results for fans searching for tickets for Ed Sheeran’s shows in Ireland next year, despite Aiken Promotions, the…

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